What if I said my name was
Antwan?
Of course it's a phonetic variation of "Antoine". And how does that happen again? Did you "axe" the right person how it was spelled?
Edward MacNeal would say that it comes from the Black English Vernacular (BEV). I think so too.
I recall a reference to the name in
Pulp Fiction:
VINCENT: What do you think about what happened to Antwan?
MIA: Who's Antwan? ... What does it mean?
BUTCH: I'm an American, our names don't mean sh*t. ...
Behind the Name
http://www.behindthename.com/php/view.php?name=anthonyhas enlightened us that it ultimately comes from the Italian name "Antonius":
From the Roman family name Antonius, which is of unknown Etruscan origin. It is sometimes claimed to mean "flower" from Greek ανθος (anthos). Mark Antony (Marcus Antonius) was the Roman general who ruled the Roman empire jointly with Augustus for a short time. Their relationship turned sour however, and he and his mistress Cleopatra were attacked and forced to commit suicide. Shakespeare's tragedy 'Antony and Cleopatra' is based on them. Other famous bearers include the 3rd-century Saint Anthony the Abbot, a hermit from Egypt who founded monasticism, and the 13th-century Saint Anthony of Padua, the patron saint of Portugal.I'm just sayin'...
"Eventually, everything connects."
~ Charles Eames
